The pdf version of the document can be seen here.

In remarks to the press today, Obama said that his campaign had already released his birth certificate in 2008. And, in fact, FactCheck.org staffers handled, examined and photographed the "certification of live birth." That short-form document is what Hawaii releases to citizens who request a copy of their birth certificate, and we confirmed that it meets legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport. We concluded: "Obama was born in the U.S.A. just as he has always said."

If that wasn’t enough, Hawaii newspapers had run birth announcements in August 1961, shortly after Obama’s birth.

And on top of that, Chiyome Fukino, the then-director of Hawaii’s Department of Health, released a statement in 2008, saying she had seen the original birth certificate on file verifying that Obama was born in Hawaii. Fukino released a second statement in 2009, saying that Obama "is a natural-born American citizen."

The long-form version that the president released today has a few additional details, beyond what the short-form includes. It says he was born at Kapi’olani Maternity and Gynecological Hospital, just as the president has said. And it lists his mother’s birthplace as Wichita, Kansas, and his father’s as Kenya, East Africa. The certificate is also signed by Obama’s mother and an attending physician.

An attorney for Obama, Judith Corley, wrote to the Hawaii Department of Health on April 22, requesting "a waiver of the Department of Health’s policy, so that my client can obtain two certified copies of his original, ‘long form’ birth certificate. Waiver of the Department’s policy in this instance would allow my client to make a certified copy of his original birth certificate publicly available and would also relieve the burden currently being placed on the Department of Health by the numerous inquiries it receives from the media and others relating to my client’s birth record." Corley also included a letter from Obama, requesting the copies.

On April 25, state Director of Health Loretta J. Fuddy wrote to Obama, saying that she was "making an exception to current departmental policy" and issuing copies of the original Certificate of Live Birth.

Obama said he sought release of the long-form birth certificate so that the nation could focus on more serious matters. "We do not have time for this kind of silliness," he said.

We certainly have debunked a fair share of silliness on this issue.

But Obama also said he’s sure that no matter what evidence he produced, for some segment of society "this issue will not be put to rest." Tell us about it, Mr. President.

If Donald Trump worked for us, we'd have to say: "Donald, you're fired — for incompetence." The successful developer and TV celebrity says he'd make a good president, and maybe he would — we take no stand either way about that. But when it comes to getting facts straight, he fouls up again and again on the basics of President Barack Obama's birth. As a rookie reporter, he just wouldn't make it.

• He claims the president's grandmother says Obama was born in Kenya. In fact, the recording to which he refers shows Sarah Obama repeatedly saying through a translator: "He was born in America."
• He claims that no hospital in Hawaii has a record of Obama's birth. Hospital records are confidential under federal law, but Honolulu's Kapi'olani Medical Center has published a letter from Obama calling it "the place of my birth," thus publicly confirming it as his birthplace.
• He insists that the official "Certification of Live Birth" that Obama produced in 2008 is "not a birth certificate."  That's wrong. The U.S. Department of State uses "birth certificate" as a generic term to include the official Hawaii document, which satisfies legal requirements for proving citizenship and obtaining a passport.
• He claims that there's no signature or certification number on the document released by Obama. Wrong again. Photos of the document, which we posted in 2008, clearly show those details.
• He says newspaper announcements of Obama's birth that appeared in Hawaii newspapers in 1961 "probably" were placed there fraudulently by his now-deceased American grandparents. Actually, a state health department official and a former managing editor of one of the newspapers said the information came straight from the state health department.
• He claims "nobody knew" Obama when he was growing up and "nobody ever comes forward" who knew him as a child. "If I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten," Trump said. Well, two retired kindergarten teachers in a 2009 news story fondly recall teaching a young Barack Obama.

The evidence that Obama was born in the U.S.A. is so overwhelming that we haven't had much to say lately about the sort of bogus claims that Trump repeats. Hawaii's top official in charge of vital records stated long ago, for example, that the confidential records underlying Obama's official birth certificate show that he was born in Hawaii and is "a natural born American citizen."

But when a leading prospect for the Republican presidential nomination embraces and repeats these spurious claims and groundless conspiracy theories on national television, we are forced to wade into this swamp once again. For details of where Trump goes wrong, and full documentation of the facts, please read on to our Analysis section.

Analysis

Trump made several incorrect statements of fact in an April 7 appearance on NBC's "Today Show," and later in a call-in to MSNBC's "Morning Joe." In each instance he echoed claims that are often repeated by those who wish to believe Obama is not a natural-born American citizen and thus not qualified under the Constitution to be president.

The proof of Obama's citizenship has long been apparent to us and, we think, to any reasonable person with a mind open to evidence, regardless of his or her party. The conservative National Review agreed as long ago as July 2009, when it wrote that "a few misguided souls among the Right" had bought into the sort of "foolishness" that Trump now embraces. "Like Bruce Springsteen, he [Obama] has a lot of bad political ideas; but he was born in the U.S.A.," the Review's editors said.

The proof is not just the official birth certificate issued by the state of Hawaii, and made public by the Obama campaign in 2008. As we wrote when we published detailed photographs of that document in our "Born in the U.S.A." article, that document constitutes legal proof of citizenship sufficient to meet all U.S. Department of State requirements for issuance of a passport.

There also were public announcements of Obama's birth published in Hawaii newspapers shortly after his birth in 1961 (placed there not by his family, as Trump suggests, but based on official state records.) And the state's top vital records official, Dr. Chiyome Leinaala Fukino, director of the Hawaii Department of Health, issued a statement in 2009 stating that she had "seen the original vital records maintained on file" and that those records, which are confidential under state law, verify that "Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai‘i and is a natural-born American citizen."

Trump now recycles some of the misguided theories and false claims that have continued to circulate, mostly by viral e-mail and on some websites. We'll start with the most dramatic claim — which was first raised in 2008 and quickly discredited.

What Obama's Kenyan Grandmother Really Said

Donald Trump, NBC: His grandmother in Kenya says he was born in Kenya and witnessed the birth, okay?

Trump, MSNBC: His grandmother in Kenya, said "Oh no, he was born in Kenya and I was there and I witnessed the birth."

That claim is years old, and untrue. It was first raised publicly Oct. 30, 2008 in a court filing by Philip Berg, whose lawsuit alleging that Obama was born in Kenya had just been thrown out of federal court in Philadelphia. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals, Berg sought an "emergency" court order to halt the presidential election, and attached as "Exhibit A" an affidavit from Ron McRae, a pastor from Johnstown, Pa., who describes himself as the presiding bishop of the "Anabaptists Churches of North America." (The appeal also was denied).

In the affidavit, McRae makes a number of statements, including a claim that Obama had campaigned "actively" for Raila Odinga to be president of Kenya in 2007.  In fact, Obama was in Kenya in August, 2006, nearly a year and a half before the Kenyan presidential election held in December, 2007.That alone is reason to question McRae's credibility.

But McRae goes on to claim that — just two weeks earlier — Obama's paternal grandmother Sarah Obama, had admitted to him during a transatlantic telephone interview that she was present at the birth of her grandson Barack Obama — in Kenya. Berg filed only a partial, edited transcript of the call, which was arranged by one of McRae's fellow missionaries. Even that incomplete record shows that it was McRae — not Sarah Obama — who said the future president was born in Kenya. McRae's leading questions were relayed to her through a translator, since she spoke in her native Luo language, not English. Later, the part of the conversation that Berg omitted was revealed. And it makes clear that Sarah Obama misunderstood McRae at first, and tried repeatedly to correct McRae's misunderstanding, saying emphatically: "He was born in America!"

Berg Transcript

Ron McRae: Amen. I am so thankful. Could I ask her, uh, about his, uh, his actual birthplace? I would like to see hi[s] actual birthplace when I, when I come to Kenya in December. Uh, was she present when he was, was she present when he was born in Kenya?.…

Translator: Yes. She says, “Yes she was! She was present when Obama was born.”

McRae: Okay.

The Berg transcript ends here. But when the full recording later came to light it showed that this is what followed immediately:

What Berg Left Out

McRae: Okay, uh, when I come in December I would like to go by the, the place, the hospital where he is born. Uh, could you tell me where he was born? Was he born in Mombasa? (Long pause) . . .

Translator: No, no — what? . . .  No! Obama was not born in Mombasa. He was born in America.

McRae: Wh-whereabouts, whereabouts was he born? I, I thought he was born in Kenya.

Translator: No he was born in America, not in Mombasa.

McRae: OK. Do you know whereabouts he was born?

Translator: Huh?

McRae: Do you know where he was born? I thought he was born in Kenya. I was gonna go by and see where he was born. . . .

Translator: Sir, she says he was born in Hawaii.

McRae: OK.

Translator: Yeah, in 1960 this was Hawaii, where his father, his father was also marrying there. This was Hawaii.

McRae: OK. . . . I thought you said she was present. Was she, was, was she, was she able to see him being, being born in, in Hawaii? . . .

Translator: No, no! The, the woman was not present. She was uh not, a what — you see, she was here in Kenya, and Obama was born in America. That is, that’s obvious.

Note that  Berg did not file an audio recording of McRae's call with the court. It first appeared Nov. 1, 2008 on the "America's Right" website of Jeff Schreiber, who describes himself on his site as being "on the right side of the traditional political spectrum." He wrote that he was opposed to Obama's election because of the candidate's "radical ideology," and was "open to the idea that Barack Obama has not been entirely truthful" about his background. Yet  Schreiber posted a "WARNING — Please Read" notice at the top of his story, saying of Berg's account:  "I don’t particularly think that it smells right."

We recently interviewed Schreiber and asked how he obtained the tape. "I got it from McRae himself," he said. He said he remains skeptical of the tape. "We don't know that the woman is who they say she is." He had no reason to believe, however, that McRae gave him anything but a "full and complete" audio file of the interview.

Told that Trump cites the tape as evidence Obama was born in Kenya, Schreiber asked if we had Trump's phone number so he could call him and talk to him. What would he tell Trump?

Schreiber, April 8: I’d tell him, well, that he needs to be careful when it comes to sourcing of information. If someone came to him with a rock solid investment, you’d think he would look into it. It’s the same thing. If he is going to go on the record and start claiming things he needs to make sure the source is right. I would caution him on his proper role in the presidential primary.

So far as we know, neither McRae nor Berg has disputed the authenticity of the recording on Schreiber's site. You can listen to the whole thing for yourself by going to his site, or listen to a copy that we have downloaded and posted here:

(Click image to listen to Sarah Obama interview)

Worth noting is that Sarah Obama granted a number of interviews to reporters, and not one of them has quoted her as claiming the president was born in Kenya. Quite the contrary. A reporter for an Indianapolis television station filed this story shortly after Obama was elected in November, 2008. And in it Sarah Obama tells (again, through translators) of her grandson's first visit to Kenya — when he was 25 years old.

Birth Certificate

Trump also makes false claims about the document Obama produced in 2008, claiming that it is not a birth certificate and has no signature or serial number:

Trump, NBC: He doesn't have a birth certificate or he hasn't shown it. He has what's called certificate of live birth. That's something that's easy to get. … it's not the equivalent. …  A certificate of live birth is not even signed by anybody. I saw his. I read it very carefully. It doesn't have a serial number, doesn't have a signature. there's not even a signature.

Trump is wrong. He just hasn't done his homework.

It's true that the rather poor image that the Obama campaign at first made public showed only one side of the document (the official signature was on the reverse) and the campaign unaccountably obliterated the number, for reasons never fully explained. But when we pressed the campaign for a better image, we were allowed to come to campaign headquarters and photograph it for ourselves, which we did. Had Trump looked at our 2008 article, he would see the signature stamp of Alvin Onaka, certifying that the document is "a true copy or abstract of the record on file," issued to Obama June 7, 2007 as he was preparing to run for president.

Furthermore, the serial number (actually a "certificate" number) shows quite clearly in our photos. The number is 151 1961 – 010641, for whatever that's worth.

Trump is also mistaken about what legally qualifies as a "birth certificate," which is actually a broad generic term with no specific legal meaning. The U.S. Department of State uses the term "certified birth certificate" to refer to exactly what Obama produced, which Hawaii calls a "Certification of Live Birth." The State Department accepts a state-certified photocopy of a hospital-generated document, as was commonly used in the past.

But Hawaii, like many other states, now uses computer-printed documents instead, and Hawaii's form also meets State Department standards for establishing citizenship.

U.S. Department of State: A certified birth certificate has a registrar's raised, embossed, impressed or multicolored seal, registrar's signature, and the date the certificate was filed with the registrar's office, which must be within 1 year of your birth

We were amused to see Trump make a show recently of producing what he said was his own "birth certificate," which wasn't an official document and wouldn't  qualify him for a passport. “It took me one hour to get my birth certificate," he told the conservative-leaning news site Newsmax. "It’s inconceivable that, after four years of questioning, the president still hasn’t produced his birth certificate."

Trump's "birth certificate" was actually an unofficial "Certificate of Birth" generated by Jamaica Hospital Medical Center (in Queens, N.Y. — not the island nation) stating that Trump was born there June 14, 1946. But because it was not "issued by the city, county or state" as required by the State Department, it does not constitute legal proof of citizenship sufficient to obtain a passport. When confronted with these facts, Trump later coughed up what he said was his official birth record issued by New York City's Bureau of Records and Statistics. It is a certified photocopy of a "Certificate of Birth" signed by a physician. This one does appear to meet State Department requirements. And so does Obama's.

Hospital Hooey

Trump also fouled up doubly by claiming that the hospital where he was born still has detailed records of his birth, and also that "nobody knows" at which hospital Obama was born. He's wrong on both counts.

Trump, MSNBC: The hospital [in Hawaii] has not only no birth certificate, or if they have it they should produce it, or maybe there is something on it, who knows, but they have no records that he was there. The family is fighting over which hospital in Hawaii he was born in, nobody knows which hospital, they say no it’s this one, no it’s that one. The family in Hawaii is fighting.

A couple of other things, when I was born in Jamaica hospital in Queens, when I was born there are records saying how much my parents paid for the doctor, who the doctor was, what room number I was born in, all of these things that I have. There is not one record in any hospital in Hawaii that Barack Hussein Obama was born there.

In fact, Kapi'olani Medical Center in Honolulu is where Obama was born. It's true that his Hawaiian birth certificate doesn't name the hospital. It's also true that at least one news story (which was later corrected) incorrectly reported a different hospital as the birthplace, allowing Obama's foes to engage in unfounded speculation that family members disagreed. (We've seen zero evidence of such a family disagreement.)

It is also true that Kapi'olani can't legally release individually identifiable health information without that person's permission because of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. But Obama referred to Kapi'olani as "the place of my birth" in a letter he sent as part of the hospital's 100th anniversary in 2009. And the hospital not only published the letter in its magazine (see page 6), but then-Congressman Neil Abercrombie, a Democrat who is now governor of the state, proudly read the letter aloud at the hospital's anniversary gala. Video of that event still is posted on the hospital's website.

We've excerpted the relevant portion here:

We also found that Trump was just blowing hot air when he claimed that Jamaica Hospital Medical Center in Queens has detailed records of his birth, including "how much my parents paid for the doctor." Our researcher Michael Morse asked a hospital spokesman about that. What he was told is that any records of a birth from that long ago were probably destroyed many years ago, and even if they still existed the hospital could not release them to outsiders because of HIPAA. The hospital's policy is to retain records of any child until age 21.

Michael Hinck, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, spokesman: It's unlikely that the information will still exist.

And what about details such as the doctor who delivered Trump and the room number where he and his mother stayed? Even if that information still existed, Hinck said, "We wouldn't be able to give any details. And that's according to HIPAA."

And the same applies to other hospitals, including Kapi'olani where Obama was born.

Bogus Birth Announcement?

On MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Trump also claimed without any evidence that Obama's grandparents may have placed the birth announcements that appeared Aug. 13, 1961 in the Honolulu Advertiser and Aug. 14, 1961 in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. Trump speculated that the grandparents "put the ads in" the papers "because they wanted him to become a United States citizen."

Trump, April 7: Now, let me just go to the final point. The final point on the birther. The final point is the newspaper. Well, guess what? His grandparents probably put in a thing because everybody wanted to become a United States citizen, more so than today to be honest with you, because they were more proud in those days. But for purposes of hospitalization and welfare, you want to become an American citizen. So, the grandparents living in Honolulu, living in Hawaii, probably put it in. It’s a very simply explanation.

It's also very simple to make a false claim.

In a 2009 story, the Advertiser noted that the announcement read exactly the same in the competing newspapers: "Mr. and Mrs. Barack H. Obama, 6085 Kalanianaole Hwy., son, Aug. 4." That's because, it said, the information came directly from the health department, citing department spokeswoman Janice Okubo.

Advertiser, July 28, 2009: Such vital statistics, however, were not sent to the newspapers by the general public but by the Health Department, which received the information directly from hospitals, Okubo said. Birth announcements from the public ran elsewhere in both papers and usually included information such as the newborn's name, weight and time of birth.

Okubo's statement is further supported by the Advertiser headline ("Births, Marriages, Deaths)" and subhead ("Health Bureau Statistics"). The Star-Bulletin headline reads, "Marriage Applications Births–Deaths."

In a Nov. 9, 2008 story in the Advertiser, the Star-Bulletin's former managing editor Dave Shapiro discussed the paper's policy for accepting birth announcements.

Advertiser, Nov. 9, 2008: Advertiser columnist and former Star-Bulletin managing editor Dave Shapiro was not at either paper in 1961, but he remembers how the birth notices process worked years later when both papers were jointly operated by the Hawaii Newspaper Agency — which no longer exists. "Those were listings that came over from the state Department of Health," he said. "They would send the same thing to both papers."

This is not empirical evidence. But Trump has no evidence and no knowledge of the process for publishing birth announcements.

'Kindergarten' Stuff

Trump kicked off his Obama-isn't-a-citizen campaign March 17 on ABC's "Good Morning America" when he admitted to "just a little" doubt about the president's birth. That doubt, he now says, has grown. On ABC, Trump said he found it "very strange" that "nobody knew him" when Obama was growing up as a small boy in Hawaii.

Trump, ABC: The reason that I have a little doubt — just a little — is because he grew up and nobody knew him. When you interview people — if I ever got the nomination, if I ever decide to run, you may go back and interview people from my kindergarten, they'll remember me. Nobody ever comes forward. Nobody knows who he is until later in his life. It's very strange. The whole thing is very strange."

That's false. The fact is that the Maui News interviewed two retired kindergarten teachers, Aimee Yatsushiro and Katherine Nakamoto, who recalled a chubby little 5-year-old Barack Obama in their kindergarten class.

Maui News, Jan. 21, 2009: Yatsushiro, a retired teacher from Kahului, served as a student teacher from September to December 1966 at Noelani Elementary School on Oahu. Her supervising teacher was Kazuko Sakai, the primary educator for about 25 students in a kindergarten class that included a boy named Barack "Barry" Obama.

"He was a cute, likable, heavy build-child," Yatsushiro recalled. "I could visualize Barry smiling, dressed in his long-sleeved, white shirt tucked into his brown Bermuda shorts, and wearing laced shoes."

Nakamoto, also a retired teacher now living in Wailuku, coincidentally was assigned to the same kindergarten class, only this time from January to June of 1967. Nakamoto said she never used a nickname for the student. "We called him Barack. . . . He was very well mannered, respectful, confident and independent."

CNN's Suzanne Malveaux confronted Trump with taped interviews of people who recall a young Obama as a child in Hawaii. In response, Trump falsely denied that he ever said nobody remembers Obama as a child.

Trump, April 7: Look, I didn't say that. You have to be born in the country. If he was three years old, or two years old, or one year old and people remember him — that's irrelevant.

We agree it's irrelevant. The fact is, though, that Trump said it.

We say again . . .

As we said at the outset, we take no stand either way on whether Trump deserves to be nominated or elected president. If he has doubts about Obama's birth, he's entitled to them — as is anybody else. And we would never presume to advise Republicans on whom to choose as their nominee, or to advise any voter whom to send to the White House. Our job is simply to assess evidence and call out falsehoods and factual mistakes when we find them.

We will permit ourselves this observation. Back in 2008 we said this about the many loopy theories and  lawsuits claiming that Obama was born in Kenya, or somewhere other than the U.S.A:

FactCheck.org, Nov. 1, 2008: Of all the nutty rumors, baseless conspiracy theories and sheer disinformation that we’ve dealt with at FactCheck.org during campaign 2008, perhaps the goofiest is the claim that Barack Obama is not a “natural-born citizen” and therefore not eligible to be president under the constitution.

We've seen no evidence that would change our conclusion in the nearly two and a half years since then.

Developments have at times been bizarre. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered one lawyer to pay a $20,000 fine for a "frivolous" lawsuit raising some of the same claims Trump now embraces. The same lawyer introduced in court a birth certificate supposedly showing Obama was born in Mombasa — a document quickly revealed as a forgery. Many who embrace Trump's theories were left red-faced by a transparent April Fool's Day hoax in 2009.

So — love Trump or hate him. That's your choice. All we're saying is that his factual assertions about Obama's birth would get him fired from any reputable news organization. Or at least, it would get him fired here.

–  by Brooks Jackson and Eugene Kiely, with Michael Morse

Sources

McGraw, Seamus. "Trump: I have 'real doubts' Obama was born in U.S." Today Show. 7 Apr 2011.

Editorial. "Born in the U.S.A." National Review. 28 Jul 2009.

Henig, Jess. "Born in the U.S.A." FactCheck.org. 28 Aug 2008.

Hawaii Department of Health. FAQ on vital records related to the birth of President Barack Obama. Undated, accessed 8 Apr 2011.

Hawaii Department of Health. "Statement by Health Director Chiyome Fukino, M.D." Press release. 27 Jul 2009.

Berg v. Obama. No. 08-4340. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "Emergency motion for an immediate junction to stay the presidential election …" 30 Oct 2008.

Berg v. Obama. No. 08-4340. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "Memorandum & Order." 24 Oct 2008.

Berg v. Obama. No. 08-4340. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "Exhibit A." 27 Oct 2008.

Associated Press. "Sen. Obama visits Nairobi slum." MSNBC. 27 Aug 2006.

"Scores dead in Kenya poll clashes." BBC News. 31 Dec 2007.

Berg v. Obama. No. 08-4340. U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Pennsylvania. "Exhibit B." 30 Oct 2008.

Schreiber, Jeff. "The 'Sarah Obama Tape.'" America's Right. 1 Nov 2008.

Schreiber, Jeff. Interview with FactCheck.org. 8 Apr 2011.

"Mama Sarah Obama: Exclusive Interview from WTHR-TV." WTHR. 11 Nov 2008.

Department of State. "Passports: First Time Applicants." Undated, accessed 8 Apr 2008.

"Exclusive to Newsmax: Trump's Hospital Birth Docs." Newsmax. 28 Mar 2011.

Falcone, Michael. "Take Two: Donald Trump Releases Official Birth Certificate." ABC News. 29 Mar 2011

UPI. "Sen. Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois." UPI. 4 Nov 2008.

"Focused on Family-Centered Care." Inspire Magazine. Spring 2009.

"Births, Marriages, Deaths." Honolulu Advertiser. 13 Aug 1961.

"Marriage Applications Births–Deaths." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 14 Aug 1961.

Nakaso, Dan. "Hawaii official confirms Obama's original birth certificate still exists." Honolulu Advertiser. 28 Jul 2009.

Hoover, Will. "Obama's Hawaii boyhood homes drawing gawkers." Honolulu Advertiser. 9 Nov. 2008.

"GMA Exclusive: Trump a Birther?" ABC News. 17 Mar 2011.

San Nicolas, Claudine. "Retired teachers on Maui recall young, 'cute' student Barry." Maui News. 21 Jan 2009.

Jackson, Brooks. "It's Official: Obama Born in U.S.A." FactCheck.org. 1 Nov 2008.

Sheridan, Michael. "'Birther' leader Orly Taitz ordered by Supreme Court to pay $20,000 fine for 'frivolous' lawsuit." New York Daily News. 16 Aug 2010.

Weigel, David. "Births Latch Onto Forged Kenyan Birth Certificate." Washington Examiner. 3 Aug 2009.

Jackson, Brooks. "Was Obama Born in the USA?" FactCheck.org. 7 May 2009.

(As journalists, we wonder, "Since when has a government official needed a law to ignore a request for information?" But we assume Hawaii officials have their reasons.)

Hawaii officials tell requesters the same thing over and over: State law prohibits the release of a certified birth certificate to anyone who doesn’t have a tangible interest in the matter. For those coming in late, Obama requested and obtained a copy of his own birth certificate and released it publicly in 2008, after which we examined it and found all in order. The document is legal proof of citizenship, and it’s the only type of birth record the state issues. Nevertheless, some wanted more. So Dr. Chiyome Fukino, the state health director, issued a statement saying that she has seen the original vital records verifying that Obama was born in Hawaii and "is a natural-born American citizen." But that hasn’t stopped the inquiries.

Linda Lingle, we’d note, is a Republican, and stumped for Sen. John McCain in 2008.

In other news on this front, the Eleventh Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals has upheld a $20,000 sanction against Orly Taitz, the most visible of those pressing the Obama-as-foreigner theory. As we wrote in January, a lower court judge imposed the fine to punish Taitz’ "misconduct" in filing "frivolous" legal claims on behalf of an Army officer who didn’t want to deploy to Iraq on the grounds that Obama’s presidency was illegitimate:

Judge Clay D. Land, Oct. 13 2009: While the Court derives no pleasure from its imposition of sanctions upon counsel Orly Taitz, it likewise has no reservations about the necessity of doing so. A clearer case could not exist; a weaker message would not suffice.

Land was named to the bench by another Republican, former President George W. Bush.

Another lawsuit filed by Taitz on the subject was dismissed in April by no-nonsense federal Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington, D.C. "This court is not willing to go tilting at windmills with her," Lamberth said, referring to Taitz.

Taitz, undeterred, is hoping to capture the Republican nomination to be California’s secretary of state. In that race, she claims that her primary opponent is ineligible to run, though for different reasons than his place of birth. Taitz contends that Damon Dunn was too recently registered as a Democrat to be a candidate in the GOP primary. 

In the spring of 2009, a chain e-mail started circulating with claims of a "smoking gun" proving President Obama was a foreigner.

AP- WASHINGTON D.C. – In a move certain to fuel the debate over Obama’s qualifications for the presidency, the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” has released copies of President Obama’s college transcripts from Occidental College. Released today, the transcript indicates that Obama, under the name Barry Soetoro, received financial aid as a foreign student from Indonesia as an undergraduate at the school. The transcript was released by Occidental College in compliance with a court order in a suit brought by the group in the Superior Court of California. The transcript shows that Obama (Soetoro) applied for financial aid and was awarded a fellowship for foreign students from the Fulbright Foundation Scholarship program. To qualify, for the scholarship, a student must claim foreign citizenship. This document would seem to provide the smoking gun that many of Obama’s detractors have been seeking.

The dateline, April 1, should have been the first clue for alert readers. If that wasn’t enough, they could have done a quick Google — sorry, "Topeka" — search on "Americans for Freedom of Information." At the time, they would have found no record of any such organization. Later on, in May, they might have discovered a new blog called "Americans for Freedom of Information: We Do Not Exist." The title has now been changed to "Americans for Freedom of Information: Really Now, We Do Not Exist." A recent post reads:

You know, when we started this website, Americans for Freedom of Information, we thought it would be a short-time effort to point out the absurdity in the fake Associated Press “news story” that some desperate right-winger pulled together in an effort to make you think that Barack Obama wasn’t born in this country. Surely, we thought, if we just make it apparent to people that the group “Americans for Freedom of Information” did not actually exist, then everybody will figure out that they’ve been hoaxed and move on to some new crackpot conspiracy, maybe about Corn Flakes.

But no. Seven months later, the completely fictitious “shocking revelation” that Barack Obama registered at Occidental College under the name “Barry Soetoro” is still being posted as fresh news on right-wing websites.

Needless to say, they’re right. This article is a transparent hoax — about the only thing in it with any truth at all is the April 1 date. Obama was registered and received a scholarship under the name Barack Obama. The scholarship was not a Fulbright. Occidental hasn’t released Obama’s transcripts under any court order. And this article is not from the Associated Press. We posted an article saying all of that on May 7, 2009, after getting scores of inquiries. And yet today — April 1, 2010 — we received the following e-mail: "Did President Obama request and/or receive, foriegn student financial aid while he was a student at Occidental College?" That’s not a fluke: We’ve gotten three queries about this utterly fabricated "fact" in the last 24 hours, six in the past week.

Call it a testament to the power and quirkiness of the Internet — it can shuttle fake news around at the speed of light, but somehow buzz-killing fact-checks move more slowly. Or call it a tribute to the e-mail’s anonymous author, who pulled off a remarkably successful April Fools’ coup, which is still making fools of those who wish to believe that President Obama was not born in the U.S.A. At any rate, while this is hardly the longest-running false rumor — we get frequent questions, for instance, about a petition to the FCC that Snopes.com found was defeated in 1975 — it’s certainly the most tenacious April Fools’ prank we’ve seen.

Happy birthday, Fulbright hoax. You’ve succeeded beyond reason.

A: No. This is yet another bogus claim circulated by persons who cling to a belief that Obama was not born in the U.S.A. The judge threw the case out of court back in October.

FULL QUESTION

Is this true?

Court date Jan 26, 2010—-Obama

I ask that you pray for this Judge. I also ask that you storm Heaven, and ask God to allow the truth to come into the light. Get as many people as you can to pray for this to be resolved….HONESTLY….without bribes.
Please Pray For Him

Federal Judge Carter sets Trial Date for Obama’s Eligibility!

The expedited trial has been set for Jan. 26, 2010

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏

Many concerned veterans and citizens attended the hearing in Federal Court in Santa Ana in the lawsuit against Barack Obama to determine his eligibility to be President and Commander in Chief. About 150 people showed up, almost all in support of the lawsuit to demand that Obama release his birth certificate and other records that he has hidden from the American people..

Judge David Carter refused to hear Obama’s request for dismissal. He indicated there was almost no chance that this case would be dismissed. Obama is arguing this lawsuit was filed in the wrong court if you can believe that. Obama would prefer a "kangaroo court" instead of a Federal court! Assuming Judge Carter denies Obama’s motion for dismissal, he will likely then order expedited discovery which will force Obama to release his birth certificate in a timely manner.

The judge, WHO IS A FORMER U.S. MARINE, repeated several times that this is A VERY SERIOUS CASE which must be resolved quickly so that the troops know that their Commander in Chief is eligible to hold that position and issue lawful orders to our military in this time of war. He basically said OBAMA MUST PROVE HIS ELIGIBILITY to the court! He said Americans deserve to know the truth about their President!

The two U.S. Attorneys representing Barack Obama tried everything they could to sway the judge that this case was frivolous, but Carter would have none of it and cut them off several times. Obama’s attorneys left the courtroom after about the 90 minut e hearing looking defeated and nervous.

Great day in America for the U.S. Constitution! The truth about Barack Obama’s eligibility will be known fairly soon – Judge Carter practically guaranteed it!

Video from the press conference after the hearing coming soon. Congratulations to plaintiffs attorney Dr. Orly Taitz! She did a great job and won some huge victories. She was fearless!

This needs to be forwarded to everyone you know….

FULL ANSWER

The lawsuit in question here was filed hours after Barack Obama took the oath of office on Jan. 20, 2009, and it raises groundless claims made in dozens of similar lawsuits, all but a few of which have been dismissed. It claimed that evidence exists to show Obama was born in Kenya, among other things. In fact, Obama long ago produced a valid birth certificate issued by the state of Hawaii, and state officials have said the state’s "original vital records" show Obama was born in Hawaii and is "a natural-born American citizen."

This particular e-mail once had a tiny shred of truth to it. At one point Judge David O. Carter had indeed blocked out a tentative trial date for this case, briefly encouraging the Obama birth deniers. But that was as a procedural matter only, and it was never likely that any trial would be held. To reach a trial the case had to survive a motion to dismiss it, which no previous lawsuit by Obama birth deniers had done.

This one didn’t either. Judge Carter not only dismissed the case, but he ended his Oct. 29 opinion with a denunciation of the arguments and claims made by the anti-Obama attorneys:

Judge David O. Carter, Oct. 29, 2009: Plaintiffs have encouraged the Court to ignore … mandates of the Constitution; to disregard the limits on its power put in place by the Constitution; and to effectively overthrow a sitting president who was popularly elected by “We the People”–over sixty-nine million of the people. Plaintiffs have attacked the judiciary, including every prior court that has dismissed their claim, as unpatriotic and even treasonous for refusing to grant their requests and for adhering to the terms of the Constitution which set forth its jurisdiction. Respecting the constitutional role and jurisdiction of this Court is not unpatriotic. Quite the contrary, this Court considers commitment to that constitutional role to be the ultimate reflection of patriotism.

Therefore, for the reasons stated above, Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is GRANTED.

Up until that time, Obama deniers took hope from the fact that Judge Carter had listened patiently and had even blocked out time for a trial should the case ever get that far. But the judge also made clear in his remarks from the bench that he was skeptical that any court had the authority to remove a sitting president from office as the plaintiffs sought, since the Constitution gives the Senate the "sole power to try impeachements." And eventually, that’s the reason he gave for tossing out the case:

Judge David O. Carter, Oct. 29, 2009: There may very well be a legitimate role for the judiciary to interpret whether the natural born citizen requirement has been satisfied in the case of a presidential candidate who has not already won the election and taken office. However, on the day that President Obama took the presidential oath and was sworn in, he became President of the United States. Any removal of him from the presidency must be accomplished through the Constitution’s mechanisms for the removal of a President, either through impeachment or the succession process set forth in the Twenty-Fifth Amendment.

The Obama deniers aren’t giving up, of course. They continue to seek an appeal of Judge Carter’s dismissal. But unless they succeed in that there will be no trial.

Footnote: Judge Carter was less harsh in his opinion than another federal judge who threw out a similar lawsuit brought by the same attorney, Orly Taitz, in Georgia. Judge Clay D. Land issued a ruling declaring the suit before him to be "frivolous." He also said it "has no merit." And he later fined Taitz $20,000 for wasting the court’s time. He said:

Judge Clay D. Land, Oct. 13, 2009: When a lawyer files complaints and motions without a reasonable basis for believing that they are supported by existing law or a modification or extension of existing law, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law. When a lawyer uses the courts as a platform for a political agenda disconnected from any legitimate legal cause of action, that lawyer abuses her privilege to practice law.

Taitz is appealing the fine.

For the record, Judge Land was nominated by President George W. Bush, while Judge Carter was nominated by President Bill Clinton.

–Brooks Jackson

Sources

Barnett v. Obama. CASE NO. SACV 09-0082 DOC (ANx). United States District Court for the Central District of California. 29 Oct 2009.

Rhodes v. MacDonald. CASE NO. 4:09-CV-106 (CDL). United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. 16 Sep 2009.

Rhodes v. MacDonald. CASE NO. 4:09-CV-106 (CDL). United States District Court for the Middle District of Georgia. 13 Oct 2009.

A: The interrogator in a chain e-mail gets his facts fouled up and makes false accusations.

FULL QUESTION:

Have you seen this one making the e-mail rounds? I've seen that you've disproven at least one or two items contained in this "Colombo" e-mailing. Can you debunk any of the rest on your Web site?

Thank you very much for your good work

Subject: Sorry to bother you

Remember Colombo?

Ah, sorry to bother you Mr. Obama, Sir. . …

Excuse me Mr. Obama, I mean President Obama, Sir. Um . . I know you're busy, and important and stuff. I mean, running the country is very important and — ah — I hate to bother you, Sir. I will only take a minute. Ok, Sir?

See, I have these missing pieces that are holding me up, and I was wondering, Sir, if you could take time out of your busy schedule and help me out. You know, no big deal, just some loose ends and things.

⬐ Click to expand/collapse the full text ⬏

Hey, you have a nice place here! The wife sees houses like this on TV all the time and says, boy, she wishes she had digs like this, you know? Is that painting real? Really? Wow!
I saw something like that in a museum once.
Oh, sorry Sir. I didn't mean to get off the track.

So if you could just help me out a minute and give me some details, I will get right out of your way. I want to close this case and maybe take the wife to Coney Island or something. Ever been to Coney Island Sir? No? I didn't think so…

Well, listen, anyway, I can't seem to get some information I need to wrap this up. These things seem to either be "Not released" or "Not available." I'm sure it's just an oversight or glitch or something, so if you could you tell me where these things are I have them written down here somewhere — oh wait. I'll just read it to you.

Could you please help me find these things, Sir?

1. Occidental College records — Not released
2. Columbia College records — Not released
3. Columbia Thesis paper — "Not available"
4. Harvard College records — Not released
5. Selective Service Registration — Not released
6. Medical records — Not released
7. Illinois State Senate schedule — Not available
8. Your Illinois State Senate records — Not available
9. Law practice client list — Not released
10. Certified Copy of original Birth certificate — Not released
11. Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth — Not released
12. Record of your baptism — Not available
13. Why your wife, Michelle, can no longer practice law as an attorney? (Insurance Fraud?)_
14. Why your wife has 22 assistants, when other First Ladies had one?
15. Why were you getting "foreign student aid" as a college student?
16. Which countries "passport" did you have when you visited Pakistan in 1981?

Oh and one more thing Mr. President, I can't seem to find any articles you published as editor of the Harvard Law Review, or as a Professor at the University of Chicago. Can you explain that to me, Sir?

Oh, but hey — listen! I know you're busy! If this is too much for you right now — I mean — tell you what. I'll come back tomorrow. Give you some time to get these things together, you know? I mean, I know you're busy. I'll just let myself out. I'll be back tomorrow. And the day after. . …
What's that Mr. President? Who wants to know these things?
We the People of the United States of America! You know, the ones that vote.

FULL ANSWER:

In the old television series "Columbo," the rumpled Los Angeles police lieutenant played by actor Peter Falk solved crimes by asking penetrating questions based on his own keen eye both for evidence and for holes in the suspect's story. But the fake "Columbo" in this widely forwarded message misstates facts and makes baseless insinuations.

Birth Baloney

Probing for some evidence that President Obama perhaps isn't actually a U.S. citizen, the fake detective asks "Why were you getting 'foreign student aid' as a college student?" But Obama got no such aid. That question repeats a claim made in an April Fools' Day hoax that we exposed last May. He also asks, "Which countries [sic] 'passport' did you have when you visited Pakistan in 1981," suggesting that Obama must have traveled on a non-U.S. passport. But as we reported June 5, Americans routinely traveled to Pakistan using U.S. passports in 1981, and a conservative blogger's claim that Obama necessarily used a foreign passport is false.

"Colombo's" most blatantly false claim is that Obama has "not released" any "Embossed, signed paper Certification of Live Birth." That's simply not true, as we reported Aug. 21, 2008. We posted high-resolution digital photos of Obama's "Certification of Live Birth" showing quite clearly that it is indeed embossed with the official state seal of Hawaii and also bears the signature of Hawaii state registrar Alvin T. Onaka (who uses a signature stamp for these things). As we reported, that document is legal proof of Obama's citizenship, meeting the requirements for obtaining a U.S. passport from the State Department.

Nevertheless, "Columbo" asks for more. He wants a certified copy of an "original" birth certificate, presumably meaning whatever form was filled out at Kapi'olani hospital when Obama was born there on Aug. 4, 1961. Such a document may well exist, but it would be in the file drawers of the state of Hawaii, and the state does not release those. Since 2001, the only document the state gives to those who want proof of their birth is a "certification" like the one Obama released. But we have excellent evidence that Obama's "certification" accurately reflects whatever the state has on file. Dr. Chiyome Fukino, director of the state's Department of Health, states that she has seen the "original vital records" and that all is in order. She said in an official press release:

Fukino, July 27, 2009: I … have seen the original vital records maintained on file by the Hawai‘i State Department of Health verifying Barack Hussein Obama was born in Hawai‘i and is a natural-born American citizen.

Other Insinuations

"Columbo" doesn't stop at questioning Obama's citizenship; he also attacks his wife. The faux "Columbo" even suggests that the first lady has been disciplined for criminal activity, asking "Why your wife, Michelle, can no longer practice law as an attorney? (Insurance Fraud?)" But the fact is that Mrs. Obama is merely "voluntarily inactive" as a lawyer in Illinois, according to the state's attorney registration Web site. The president himself is listed as "voluntarily retired" from practicing law. The Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois lists no record of any disciplinary action against either of them.

The questioner also asks "Why your wife has 22 assistants, when other First Ladies had one?" It's true that the first lady has a large staff — 24 at the time we checked. But as we reported Aug. 5, Laura Bush had at least 18 on her staff that we could identify from personnel records, not just one as our not-so-swift detective asserts. (Laura Bush might have had even more; a spokeswoman for Michelle Obama told us her staff is the same size as Laura Bush's, but we couldn't confirm that.)

"Columbo" asks why Obama's medical records were "not released." Actually, neither Obama nor his rival John McCain made complete disclosure of medical records in the 2008 campaign. McCain allowed a select group of reporters to look over his for three hours, but allowed no photocopies to be made. Obama's personal physician provided reporters with a detailed summary of his health status in May 2008, pronouncing him "in excellent health" with a normal electrocardiogram and normal lab results — including a cholesterol level of 173. There are surely plenty of other medical records pertaining to Obama that are not public, but we know of no evidence that these might contradict what his doctor says. And "Columbo" doesn't provide any such evidence either.

This tactic is repeated in other questions that are meant to raise suspicions by asking for records that aren't ordinarily made public, without any evidence that those records contain anything derogatory. "Columbo" notes that Obama's student records from Occidental College, Columbia University and Harvard Law School are "not released," for example. But the truth is that it would be illegal under federal law (the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act of 1974) for those institutions to give those records to reporters or members of the public without Obama's specific, written permission. Obama hasn't given that permission, but other presidential candidates generally don't either. George W. Bush didn't give permission to either Andover or Yale to release his grades when he was running for president, for example, according to a 1999 profile in the Washington Post. Bush's grades at Yale eventually became public, but only because somebody leaked them to the New Yorker magazine. We have no idea whether any embarrassing secrets might yet be lurking in Obama's old student records. But neither does the author of this "Columbo" interrogation.

Other "Columbo" questions are just insinuations that Obama is hiding something, without any evidence of that. He wonders why Obama's "schedule" and his "records" as an Illinois state senator are "not available." But the truth is that all the bills Obama sponsored or cosponsored, along with full transcripts of what he said on the Senate floor during his service  between 1997 and 2004, can be found on the Web site of the Illinois Legislature. It's true that other records probably exist — perhaps daily schedules listing his meetings with constituents or lobbyists — but what reason would there be to think they would show something bad? Or that anything unflattering would be revealed by Obama's list of law clients, or his college thesis, or his draft registration, all of which "Columbo" wants to examine? "Columbo" doesn't say. In detective parlance, he's "got nuttin' " on Obama regarding any of those subjects.

Our conclusion: This phony "Columbo" is no Sherlock Holmes.

-Brooks Jackson

Sources

Jackson, Brooks. "Was Obama Born in the USA?" FactCheck.org. 7 May 2009.

Jackson, Brooks. "More 'Birther' Nonsense: Obama’s 1981 Pakistan Trip." FactCheck.org. 5 Jun 2009.

Henig, Jessica, with Joe Miller. "Born in the U.S.A." FactCheck.org. 21 Aug 2008.

Watanabe, June. "Born Identity." Honolulu Star-Bulletin. 6 June 2009.

Fukino, Chiyome. "Press Release: Statement by Health Director Chiyome Fukino, M.D." Hawaii state Department of Health. 27 Jul 2009.

"Attorney's Registration and Public Disciplinary Record" for Michelle Obama, Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Web site accessed 14 Jan 2010.

"Attorney's Registration and Public Disciplinary Record" for Barack Obama, Attorney Registration & Disciplinary Commission of the Supreme Court of Illinois, Web site accessed 14 Jan 2010.

Gore, D'Angelo. "Michelle Obama's Staff." FactCheck.org. 5 Aug 2009.

Altman, Lawrence K. "Many Holes in Disclosure of Nominees’ Health." New York Times. 19 Oct 2008.

Sweet, Lynn. "Obama releases medical information: 'excellent health." Chicago Sun-Times. 29 May 2008.

"Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)" U.S. Department of Education, Web site accessed 14 Jan 2010.

Romano, Lois and George Lardner Jr. "Bush: So-So Student but a Campus Mover." Washington Post. 27 Jul 1999.

Mayer, Jane, with Alexandra Robbins The Talk of the Town, “Dept. of Aptitude” The New Yorker, 8 Nov 1999; 30.

Although 2009 was not an election year, it kept us exceptionally busy, and led to millions of visits to our site. In this year-end summary, we offer some of the worst examples of the falsehoods we encountered during the first year of the Obama administration.

The list of howlers includes the false claim that the stimulus bill would dictate to doctors what procedures they can and can’t perform, and assertions that health care legislation would require seniors to get advice on how to commit suicide. Democrats exaggerated the problems their legislation aims to fix — at one point Obama falsely accused an insurance company of being responsible for the death of an Illinois cancer patient. We debunked claims that the "swine flu" vaccine had killed some U.S. sailors, and another claim that a bill passed by the House would require homeowners to make expensive energy-saving modifications to their homes before they would be allowed to sell them. We dealt with false claims about levitating trains, "green jobs," gun control and — still — Obama’s place of birth.

If the year brought any signs that politicians as a class are getting any more truthful or less careless about their facts, we didn’t notice it. For a quick and (we hope) entertaining review of a spin-filled year, please read on to our "Analysis" section.

Analysis

As in past years, our "Whoppers" article presents just a selection of what we consider our most important findings, with special emphasis on the misinformation being most heavily repeated during the year. We don’t attempt to assign rankings to particular claims — your opinion is as good as ours when it comes to deciding whether one falsehood is worse than another.

So here’s a selection of the bogus bits that stood out. We start with what we judge to be the most heavily misrepresented subject of all, health care legislation.

Conservatives: Pulling the Plug on Grandma

• "Death Panels" The "pulling the plug on grandma" falsehood really took off once former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin coined the term "Death Panel," but this falsehood got its first push from former New York lieutenant governor and health care overhaul opponent Betsy McCaughey.
  She misrepresented a provision (since dropped) that merely called for Medicare to pay for voluntary counseling sessions to help seniors make end-of-life care decisions, such as designating a health care proxy, choosing a hospice or writing a living will. McCaughey twisted that into "a required counseling session" that would "tell them how to end their life sooner." Palin later wrote on her Facebook page that she doesn’t want government bureaucrats to decide whether her parents or child with Down Syndrome are "worthy of health care." Who would? Certainly not legislators, who didn’t call for the creation of any such "Death Panel" in the health care bills. "False Euthanasia Claims," July 29; "Palin vs. Obama: Death Panels," Aug. 14; " ‘SpotCheck.org’? We Disagree." Aug. 25
• Socialized Medicine: Several groups and politicians claimed that the major health care bills in Congress called for a single-payer system like Canada’s, under which all citizens have health insurance provided by the government, or even a system like Britain’s, where doctors and hospitals are employed by the government. The truth is that none of the major bills that were debated in Congress called for such a drastic change to the U.S. system, much to the chagrin of single-payer advocates. "Government-Run Health Care?" April 30; "Canadian Straw Man," July 17; "The Government-Run Mantra," Nov. 6
• Dictating to Doctors: McCaughey falsely claimed that the stimulus bill (passed in February) required that doctors follow government orders on which medical procedures can and can’t be performed. It didn’t. All the bill really did was create a council on "comparative effectiveness research," which examines which treatments or drugs work best or are most cost-effective. It said none of the council’s reports or recommendations "shall be construed as mandates or clinical guidelines for payment, coverage, or treatment."  "Doctor’s Orders?" Feb. 20.
• Breast Cancer Massacre: One TV spot claimed that "300,000 American women with breast cancer might have died" if our health care system was like England’s. The ad’s conservative sponsor cited the American Cancer Society as a source, but the cancer society never used such a number and an ACS epidemiologist called the ad sponsor’s calculations "really faulty." "A False Appeal to Women’s Fears," Sept. 4
• "26 Lies" E-mail: Judging from our editor inbox, one of the most widely circulated chain e-mails of 2009 was a lengthy list of 48 claims about specific sections of the House health care bill, complete with page numbers. We combed through every item and found that only four were true, 26 were false and the rest were misleading. At one point the author claimed that the bill contained "more payoffs for ACORN." But ACORN has nothing to do with the medical home services funded by the bill. The author also claimed that illegal aliens "will be provided with free healthcare services," misrepresenting a provision that simply prohibits discrimination in health care based on "personal characteristics." "Twenty-six Lies About H.R. 3200," Aug. 28

Liberals: Killer Insurance Companies

The more colorful claims about health care may have come from the right, but the left made false and misleading statements, too, in touting the legislation. The highlights, so to speak:

• False Fingerpointing: Obama falsely claimed that an insurance company was responsible for the death of an Illinois cancer patient whose coverage was canceled because he hadn’t reported gallstones. "They delayed his treatment," Obama said, "and he died because of it." Not true. As the Chicago Sun-Times‘ Lynn Sweet reported, Otto Raddatz of Downers Grove, Ill., did have his insurance canceled by Fortis Insurance Co., but the coverage was reinstated in April 2005 and his chemotherapy went forward after only a brief delay. Raddatz lived for nearly another four years and died early this year. Obama got this whopper from an online magazine article; the author later admitted jumping to a wrong conclusion. "Sweet: Another Stretch by Obama," Sept. 13; "Too Good to Check?" Sept. 18
• Double Trouble: Obama exaggerated by at least a factor of two when he said that health care "causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds." And we’ve noticed the claim popping up elsewhere, such as, believe it or not, in a new iPhone app. But data from the U.S. Courts showed about 934,000 total personal bankruptcies in the 12-month period ending June 2008. Even if we accept a Harvard study’s conclusion that half of bankruptcies are related to medical expenses — and some have criticized that study — that would still be only one health care bankruptcy every minute. "Fact-Checking Obama’s Speech," Feb. 25.
• Puffed-up Premiums: We twice caught Obama saying that the "average American family is paying thousands" or "a thousand dollars" in health insurance premiums to pay for uncompensated care for the uninsured. But he used a figure from a group that lobbies for expanded coverage. Nonpartisan experts at the Kaiser Family Foundation put the figure much lower — about $200.  "Obama’s Health Care Claims," June 16 and "Obama’s Health Care News Conference," July 23
• Saving $2,500: Obama repeated his claim that the average family could save $2,500 a year under health care overhaul legislation. We picked apart his optimistic calculations during the 2008 presidential campaign, but he repeated the claim as recently as May 17, saying that "comprehensive reform" and some other private sector measures could save "$2,500 per family every year." Since then we haven’t heard much about this. His claim is not supported by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which estimated that under the Senate bill (as introduced), there wouldn’t be much of a reduction at all. Those with coverage from large employers would see premium reductions of 0 percent to 3 percent, with the average family premium costing $20,300 in 2016, CBO said. And for those buying their own insurance in the nongroup market, CBO estimated that nongroup premiums actually would go up. That increase would be more than offset by new taxpayer subsidies for most policyholders — but not for all. "Seven Falsehoods About Health Care," Aug. 14

A Pandemic of Falsehoods

Dangerous Vaccine: Like the fears that H1N1 flu (or "swine flu") would rival the 1918 flu pandemic in severity, the rumors about the dangers of the H1N1 vaccine fizzled pretty quickly — but not before we encountered numerous false claims about dangers supposedly posed by the vaccine. One e-mailed rumor even called it a government "depopulation" plot. Another claimed that sailors on a U.S. Navy vessel caught the flu from the vaccine, and some died. In fact, nobody died and none of the sailors had even been vaccinated — the vaccine was not available at the time. Yet another claimed that the vaccine contains squalene and that the ingredient causes Gulf War syndrome. But in fact the American vaccine doesn’t have any squalene in it, and the link to Gulf War syndrome is, to say the least, tenuous. (It was based on a study of 38 soldiers vaccinated for anthrax who later contracted Gulf War syndrome, but it turned out that the vaccine they received had contained no squalene.) "Inoculation Misinformation," Oct. 19

Mandatory Inoculations: Equally widespread were claims of a government scheme to force people to get vaccinations or risk being put in quarantine camps. Obviously, that hasn’t happened. New York state required health care workers to get the flu vaccine, though it later suspended that requirement. Some panic-mongering e-mails misrepresented legislation being considered in Massachusetts, which would have given authorities power to isolate flu victims in quarantine in case of a health care emergency. But even this bill stated very clearly that nobody would be required to get the vaccine. "Swine Flu Emergency?," Nov. 5

Environmental Errors

This was also a big year for rumors about climate change and the legislation proposed to deal with it. We found whoppers on both sides.

Inflated Cost Claims: The GOP drastically overstated how much proposed cap-and-trade legislation would affect the average family’s energy costs — Republicans said costs would increase by $3,100 a year, more than twice the estimate of the conservative Heritage Foundation. On NBC’s "Meet the Press," House Minority Leader John Boehner cited a figure closer to the Heritage Foundation’s estimate — $1,700 per year — attributing it to the Treasury Department. But that number really came from a back-of-envelope calculation by a CBS News blogger. The Treasury Department has called the figure "flat-out wrong," and the Congressional Budget Office’s much lower estimate is $455 per year over the 2012-2050 period. "Cap and Trade Cost Inflation," May 28; "Boehner and the Cost of Cap and Trade," Sept. 22

Dueling Job Claims: Both sides tossed around misleading job claims. Proponents said cap-and-trade legislation would create 1.7 million new "green" jobs, while critics said higher energy prices would crush the economy and kill 2.4 million jobs. The truth is that career economists at the Energy Information Administration expect a net job loss, but probably in the range of hundreds of thousands, not millions. "Cap-and-trade: ‘Green Jobs’ or Job Killer?," Oct. 27

Home Sales: House Republican Leader Boehner and radio host Rush Limbaugh both claimed that the House legislation required home owners to have an "energy audit" or "survey" conducted before they could sell their homes. Such claims quickly became a chain e-mail and morphed into the assertion that home owners would need a "license" to sell their homes. None of that is true. The bill does set new efficiency standards for new residential and commercial construction — but not existing homes. "Energy Bill and Existing Homes," July 20

Stimulating Discussion

Floating Falsehoods: House and Senate Republicans told lots of whoppers about the $787 billion stimulus bill as it was being considered in February, falsely claiming that it contained funds specifically intended for golf carts, butterfly parks, water slides and other projects not in the bill. The worst of these GOP howlers was a claim that the bill had $8 billion for a “levitating train” to Disneyland. In fact, not a dime of the money was earmarked for the proposed 300-mph “maglev” bullet train between Anaheim, Calif., and Las Vegas, still little more than a pipe dream. The administration later directed the $8 billion to 10 passenger routes using more conventional technology. "GOP Stimulus Myths," Feb. 24.

Phantom Districts: Democrats had their own problems with stimulus facts. The administration’s Recovery.gov Web site reported that the spending bill was funding any number of jobs in nonexistent congressional districts. "Real Jobs, Fake Districts?" Nov. 18

The Web site was so ridden with errors that Earl Devaney, the Obama-appointed watchdog in charge of monitoring stimulus spending, admitted to Congress that the White House had been too quick to take credit for saving or creating 640,000 jobs. "Recovery Stats Get Rougher," Nov. 19 (The Congressional Budget Office later estimated that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act brought about an additional 600,000 to 1.6 million jobs than would have been the case without the law, but that doesn’t solve the problems with the data being reported on Recovery.gov.)

Born to Seize Guns?

False claims abounded about Obama’s birth, and about his policies toward guns.

Birth Pains: It was a bad year for diehards pressing their groundless claims that Obama was not born in the U.S.A and thus not qualified to be president. A federal judge fined lawyer Orly Taitz $20,000 for making frivolous claims and wasting the court’s time. (She’s appealing.) An April Fools’ hoax — falsely claiming that old college records showed Obama got a scholarship as a "foreign" student — is still circulating by e-mail and taking in the gullible. "Was Obama Born in the USA?" May 7, 2009

Gun Guff: The year brought a torrent of false claims spread by gun fanciers convinced that Obama was moving to restrict their rights. One focused on a gun-registration bill that in truth has a single sponsor and no sign of White House support. "Gun Control," Feb. 29. Another claimed that Obama is pushing to impose a $50 tax on all privately owned guns and to force owners to report their weapons on their income-tax forms (but the claim referred to a bill that died years earlier, in a previous Congress). "Privately Owned Gun Tax?," June 7. Yet another claimed the administration had shut down a Georgia ammunition supplier by cutting off supplies of spent military cartridges used for re-loading. Casings were cut off as the result of an anti-terrorism regulation with its origins in the Bush administration. The policy was quickly reversed by Obama’s Pentagon officials. "Georgia Arms," June 4.

That’s it for 2009. If your favorite whopper didn’t make our list, drop us a note at Editor@ factcheck.org and tell us what you would have included. We’ll consider including it in a special "mailbag" next month.

– by Lori Robertson, Brooks Jackson and Jess Henig

Clarification, Jan. 5: In the "26 lies" section we originally identified the author of the chain e-mail as "a conservative blogger." The blogger who originated many of the claims denies that he authored the e-mail itself.

The money quote:

Colbert: What would he have to do to satisfy you and those in your movement?
Taitz: In order to be president and commander in chief, he has to be a natural born citizen. So even if he were born in Hawaii, he cannot be the president and commander in chief specifically because of his multiple citizenship.
Colbert: So there’s absolutely nothing he can do to satisfy you?
Taitz: Unless he can bring his father out of the grave and make him a citizen post-mortem.

If we thought it would do any good, we would point Taitz to the 14th amendment, which says: "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside." Compared with time-travel voodoo, though, reading the Constitution seems awfully hard.

Incidentally, the strongly conservative National Review just published an editorial, with the same title as our story "Born in the U.S.A," citing our story, drawing heavily on our story, and concluding that Barack Obama was born in the United States. "Much foolishness has become attached to the question of President Obama’s place of birth, and a few misguided souls among the Right have indulged it," the magazine says, but the theory that Obama is a non-citizen "is based on unreality, as two minutes’ examining the claims of its proponents reveals." We’ll wager this won’t stop the zealots like Taitz, of course.

Do we expect this official statement from the keeper of Hawaiian birth records to quiet all the rumors, speculation and false claims? Of course not. We weren’t founded yesterday. In fact, doubters, we’ll get you started with a suggestion on how to ignore this latest bit of evidence. Fukino is willing to swear that Barrack Hussein Obama is a natural-born citizen. But that’s probably because (warning: sarcasm alert), by an amazing coincidence, someone named Barrack Hussein Obama was born in Hawaii, while Barack (with one "r" and not two) Hussein Obama was being born in Kenya, or on the moon, or somewhere. Does that sound adequately convincing without actually involving any evidence? Okay, then, go to town!

Update: The state of Hawaii has now posted the statement on their Web site — and in the 24 hours since they sent it to reporters, they’ve corrected the spelling error. Another excellent theory down the tubes!

This one is not quite as transparent as the April Fools’ Day hoax that took in many of these deniers of Obama’s birthplace bona fides. That one was a fabricated Associated Press story about Obama’s student records from Occidental College. But the Pakistan theory is just as false. The truth, easily proven, is that American citizens traveled freely to Pakistan in 1981.

Obama did go to Pakistan that year when he was 20 years old with a college friend, after first seeing his mother and half-sister in Indonesia. That much is true. When he mentioned the 1981 trip during a campaign appearance last year, it came as news, because he had not previously written of it in his books.

Some then speculated, or claimed outright, that Obama must have gotten into Pakistan using an Indonesian passport obtained while his mother was married to Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian man whom she had divorced the previous year. Under this theory, the young Obama had somehow become an Indonesian citizen. "Birthers" claimed that the Pakistan trip constituted indirect proof of Obama’s supposed Indonesian citizenship. Philadelphia lawyer Phil Berg even told the U.S. Supreme Court last year, before it refused to hear his case challenging Obama’s qualification to be president, that Pakistan "was on the State Department’s travel ban list for U.S. Citizens."

But that claim is quite false. There was no such ban. Americans traveled there without incident, as shown by a travel piece that appeared in the New York Times in 1981, dated June 14. Barbara Crossette, an assistant news editor of the Times, told her mostly American readers they could travel to Lahore, Pakistan, by air, rail or road, adding: "Tourists can obtain a free, 30-day visa (necessary for Americans) at border crossings and airports."

Her article prompted a letter to the Times from the U.S. consul general in Lahore saying he would "welcome an influx of Americans" to Lahore. He cautioned only that in addition to getting a visa for Pakistan, American visitors also should be careful to line up an Indian visa for the return trip if they planned to travel overland. The letter is dated Aug. 23, 1981.

Also, a travel advisory from the State Department dated Aug. 17, 1981 notes that Americans traveling to Pakistan require a 30-day visa, and that any staying longer must check in with Pakistan’s Foreigner Registration Office. A digital copy of the advisory is archived at the Electronic Research Collection, a partnership between the State Department and the Federal Depository Library at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

For those who missed it earlier, high-resolution images of Obama’s birth certificate are displayed as supporting documents to our article "Born in the U.S.A." The document meets the U.S. State Department’s requirements for proving U.S. citizenship. That, along with a 1961 newspaper announcement of his birth and statements last year by state officials in Hawaii, remove for us any doubt that Obama is indeed a natural-born citizen.

The "birthers" aren’t buying it. They, however, so far have produced what we judge to be zero credible evidence that Obama was born elsewhere, or that he later gave up U.S. citizenship. The false claim about a 1981 travel ban is typical of what’s been offered along those lines.